NAUTICAL LOG is an activist blog and publishes Posts on mostly maritime with some non-maritime subjects. We are open to receiving comments and will publish those which are about the subject matter using appropriate professional language, anonymous comments are not published.
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After the successful launch of their new sail training ship in Goa the Indian Navy has suffered an accident up the coast at Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. The INS Vindhyagiri (F42) was in collision with the container ship MV Nordlake. The incident occurred during the approach to Mumbai as the container ship was departing with a Pilot on board and the Naval vessel was entering the Port.

As a result of the collision there was a severe fire aboard the INS Vindhyagiri and the frigate was brought to the Naval Dockyard. The firefighting efforts resulted in flooding as dewatering efforts could not keep up with the fire hoses. As a result the frigate took on a severe list to port, then sank to the seabed and is partially submerged. There is no oilspill reported but the Indian Coast Guard is on standby and the shipping traffic in the Channel is not disrupted.

The initial review of the incident puts the INS Vindhyagiri as the likely at fault vessel, however a full enquiry has yet t…

A tanker carrying 2,400 tonnes of concentrated sulphuric acid from Ludwigshafen, Germany to Antwerp, Belgium capsized and sank in the Rhine River near the famous infamous Lorelei Rock near the town of St. Goarshausen, south of Koblenz, on January 13, 2011. Named MT Waldhof she is a 330 foot tanker with 4 crew of which two, a Czech and a German, are missing the other two crewmembers were rescued. There is no indication why the vessel capsized but the tanker is double hulled of stainless steel, has remained intact so spillage is not a great concern. The game plan is to pump the acid from the tanks however it seems that holes will have to be drilled to accomplish this. Also heavy lift barge cranes, three at present, are on site to lift the tanker barge once she is pumped out. This is a long process and throughout the last three weeks the Rhine traffic has been closed, there are now hundreds of barges trapped. The Rhine river which forms in Switzerland and flows north to outlet into the No…

The latest PR from The Southern Ocean details just what the SSCS are doing - nothing. The general tone is in the style of most PR's this season, introspective and rather morose. Besides the tone the actual statements are highly exaggerated, wildly improbable and bewildering in their figures. Even the navigational calculations show gross errors in the time frame.

The SSCS Pirate Group does not have any real idea just how many whales the JWF have slaughtered. It resorts to wild statements as to the numbers but with nothing to back them up. According to 'Wats-his-name' the ice floes moved and trapped him allowing the MS Nissin Maru to escape. This from the master Antarctic ice navigator who just told us that he was superior to all the others who had gone before him!! This after those bombastic statements telling the world how the JWF factory ship was in his clutches never to be let go!! Nothing seems to be going right for the guy this year, he is making a real nautical idiot o…

INS Sudharshini (means beautiful girl in Hindi) Photos courtesy of "The Times of India"

Well it seems the bad news about the Deutsche Marine STS Gorch Fock is balanced by very good news from India, Goa to be precise. The Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) as launched a second Sail Training Ship (STS) for the Indian Navy. She will now be completed, later in the year handed over to and commissioned by the Indian Navy. Named INS Sudharshini (beautiful girl) she was launched by Letha Sushil using coconut milk, no champagne in Indian launchings, the wife of vice-Admiral K.N. Sushil at Vasco, Goa. Admiral Sushil said: "The aim of using such ships is to make sailors sea-friendly, as they are taught how to survive alone at sea, understand rough weather conditions and train themselves to become good sailors-----sail training ships are increasingly being used as basic seamanship and character-building platforms by Navies the world over." Admira…

Today was a busy day and it wasn't until this evening that NAUTICAL LOG got a chance to open the Press Release folder and see if there was anything interesting. Those of us who have spend our lives at sea, no doubt the same goes for many other professions, sometimes get an uneasy feeling. We start checking around the ship starting usually on the Bridge to make sure our position is known, recently updated and correct. Once that is done we contact the Engine Room and continue throughout the vessel to try and find out what, if anything, is wrong.

In following this so called "Operation No Compromise"NAUTICAL LOG has had that uneasy feeling since SSCS sailed for The Southern Ocean, something about the whole affair this year is not right. The PR's from 'Wats-his-name' seem to lack the usual fire, while there have been occasional bursts of the dramatic bombastic style mostly it has been morose and introspective - at least it seems that way to NAUTICAL LOG. The strate…

A report on Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE) yesterday January 24, 2011 told of the rediscovery of the World War One German Navy submarine SM UC42. She sank on or about September 10, 1917 off Roche's Point, Cork Harbour, Ireland. Since she was a mine-laying submarine with 27 crew it appears that she struck one of her own mines with her stern while laying them.

There were no survivors even though the boat seems to be in quite good condition after 93 years. A plaque was placed by the boats stern and under International Maritime Law she is now a War Grave, untouchable and the responsibility of the Deutsche Marine.

NAUTICAL LOG has been sent the following crew list; as a mark of respect the Officer Ranks and Ratings Rates are in the German language:

Thursday January 25, 2011 The Southern Ocean position 70 degrees 45 minutes South, 171 degrees 45 minutes West at 1800 hours AEST. The SSCS MS Steve Irwin finally found the JWF factory ship MS Nisshin Maru. Of course this triggered a statement in the more usual dramatic bombastic style of 'Wats-his-name' rather than the morose introspective last PR. To quote him from today's PR "We finally have this serial killing death ship where we want them and from here on in we intend to ride their ass until the end of the whaling season. This whaling fleet belongs to us now - lock, stock and barrel".Well maybe, maybe not, how to monitor the JWF with one SSCS vessel, the MS Gojira is in Hobart with a fuel pump issue and crew changes, the MS Bob Barker is 300 nautical miles away which by NAUTICAL LOG count leaves only the MS Steve Irwin. Having consumed vast quantities of fuel dashing pointlessly around The Southern Ocean playing nautical tag she must soon head to - somewhere -…

Late yesterday afternoon a Press Release arrived from SSCS in the PR Folder of NAUTICALLOG. We looked through it, were quite amazed by some of its content and decided that the AFC and NFC Championship Games were more important - life does have its priorities. This morning we are reading through it more carefully over breakfast coffee and what a piece-of-work it is.

It has been over a week since the last PR, other than the shopping trip information, the tone and content of the latest 'Wats-his-name' effort is somehow rather different. Unlike his usual dramatic bombastic style this one is filled with explanations, excuses and how wonderful the crews morale is. This latter comment in a report is usually a sign that all is not well in a ship. One definitely gets the sense that there has been a division in the ranks of the SSCS Pirate Group in these three vessels and perhaps ashore as well. All this is in contrast to another troubling incident in our maritime world that occurred thi…

Other than comments quoting supposed entries in FACEBOOK which our regular readers know NAUTICAL LOG does not follow or indeed is any ones 'friend' - who can blame them!! - there is no news coming from the SSCS. In fact the last press release is dated January 18, 2011 and was about taking a shopping trip at BGF in Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, UK which is rather a long way from The Southern Ocean. Has there been a split over tactics in the ranks of the SSCS Pirate Group NAUTICAL LOG wonders.

Prior to that shopping trip there were regular dramatic bombastic press releases from 'Wats-his-name' as we reported in two posts "Lead, Follow, Right Behind You" and "Harassment" in which we told the SSCS crewmembers that they did not have to follow irresponsible and illegal orders. This was triggered by 'Wats-his-name' stating that he would order aggressive tactics to prevent the MT Sun Laurel from transferring supplies including fuel to the JWF factory…

Some very disturbing news came into NAUTICAL LOG this evening about an apparent mutiny in the German Navy Sail Training Ship Gorch Fock. The background to the report is the death in November 2010 of a female cadet-officer Sarah Schmidt as a result of falling from aloft. There were several incidents of this occurring, in other Sail Training vessels, last year. The report by Hellmut Königshaus, the German Parliament's liaison officer to the German Navy, said that after the death of the 25 year-old cadet-officer her shipmates refused to obey orders to climb the rigging. Still others did not want to continue in the ship on her round-the-world voyage. The ship's Commanding Officer, Kapitän zur See Norbert Schatz, reportedly accused four officer-cadets of lack of cooperation claiming they incited the crew to mutiny. He then ordered these four cadet-officers returned to Germany. As one can see in the top photo all the officer-cadets, with Kapitän zu…

Over the this last week there has been no news into NAUTICAL LOG from The Southern Ocean - may be no news is good news. The JWF only seem to report after an incident with the SSCS and the SSCS have been strangely silent. With them this usually means that they are accomplishing absolutely nothing, which is becoming the norm for them nowadays. From the cetacean only - silence of the whales. If any of you feel guilty about all this there is a solution because this week SSCS announced a "Guilt-free Shopping with Big Green Factory". Well NAUTICAL LOG being a simple elderly seafarer neither felt guilty, needed to go shopping, or had any idea who, what or whom Big Green Factory was. It is not too long ago that we had a first shopping trip to IKEA, which we enjoyed very much, the selection is interesting, we like assembling things in our little home workshop and the food is tasty in their South Florida store. So it was that we visited the BGF website and found out that they are in Ri…

GPS TEST AREAOf interest to all who use GPS for navigation the FAA has issued a flight advisory:

"GPS signal may be unreliable or unavailable due to tests the Department of Defense will be conducting between January 20, and February 22 2011".

The tests when they occur will be active for 45 minutes and be followed by 15 minutes of OFF time. Additional notices to pilots will apparently be given at least 24 hours prior to any test.

NAUTICAL LOG has not seen any information from either USCG 5th. District Portsmouth, VA or 7th. District Miami, FL as of yet but will update here as necessary. NAUTICAL LOG has now been updated that marine interests should go to http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/ for the maritime information.

How does a Cruise Line fight back when sued? Reading 'Cruise Law News' might enlighten you. Go to our Link List scroll down to 'Cruise Law News' and read their today's Post.TheRCCL retained law firm is particularly aggressive it would seem from the article.

Good Watch.

While going through our Link List blogs this evening we came across two reports of a subject which is rarely if ever mentioned in the maritime blogs - drug running. It is indeed a sensitive not to mention dangerous business and while of course ships are used NAUTICAL LOG feels that perhaps by and large the cruise vessels did not have a big problem. Well that was until more recently when the crews have tripled in size and are not well known by the Cruise Line who hires them and the Officers who have to sail with them.

This all came about by the recent arrest, on charges of smuggling cocaine into Bermuda, of several crewmembers from the MS Enchantment of the Seas one of the …

In the past year NAUTICAL LOG has written several Posts about the cruise ship industry from the point of view of safety and the evacuation of persons on board. It is clear that there is a deep concern amongst the Officers who mann these mega floating guest resorts. In the several incidents during 2010 alone there was not much effort to turnout the lifeboats in preparation should an evacuation become necessary. Why? Perhaps it is because the Masters in general are very uneasy about just what will happen if they do so. The real thing being very different from those weekly drills - no matter how conscientiously they are done. Nobody, thankfully, has yet had to launch these mega ships mega lifeboats to date. It is therefore an unknown factor if they can be successfully launched and an evacuation of 5000 persons successfully take place including the ADA passengers. You might ask does it make real sense to have certain ADA passengers on board from a point of view regarding their own safety,…

MS Blankanese Since the formation of the European Union it seems to NAUTICAL LOG that the quality of the vessels in many companies operating out of European Ports has gone down. The training and skills of many of the crews manning these same types of ships is highly questionable. Were it not for the constant vigilance of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and the work of its Inspectors the maritime world could be in an even sorrier state. The leadership of and from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is weak and not anything like as effective as it could or should be. Over the years we have received reports of ships being detained and many reports of crews remaining unpaid while the owners abscond or hide under layers of companies. So while it is disappointing to receive today's report from our EU correspondent it is unfortunately no surprise. The ITF inspector for Ireland is seeking the urgent assistance of the Irish Department of Transportation regardi…

At sea replenishment with vessels stopped When this SSCS Press Release "Riding a Storm in Pursuit of a Black-Hearted Sun" arrived at NAUTICAL LOG yesterday we thought, what the heck is this about? Reading it again a couple of times this morning it did not seem to make any more sense. It does seem to confirm that 'Wats-his-name' is a troubled person and perhaps paranoid. NAUTICAL LOG is not qualified to make a medical judgement but this is from his own Press Release so one has to wonder.

According to 'Wats-his-name' the Korean Master of the MT Sun Laurel is leading them into a storm in the hope that the SSCS vessels MS Bob Barker and MS Steve Irwin will break off their "pursuit". Now why on earth, as the master seaman that this guy portrays himself to be, would you follow another ship into a storm. According to the PR there is a parade of nautical idiots down in The Southern Ocean. In the lead is MT Sun Laurel followed b…

We have added two new sites in our Link List as we think NAUTICAL LOG readers will find them interesting. They came to us from a commenter who lives and loves in Japan under the comment tag name Kujirakira. He linked us to two sites 'David@Tokyo' and 'Support Whaling' which NAUTICAL LOG most certainly does NOT. However there are lots of photos of products in Japanese stores some of which NAUTICAL LOG has seen in similar stores on visits to Hawai'i.

All this gives another viewpoint of whaling and the Japanese culture and attitude towards eating whale meat. It may be that K/D did not intend this when he commented but knowledge should never go to waste so NAUTICAL LOG is passing the links on for a visit.

What would we do without the SSCS Pirate Group they actually document most, if not all, of their piratical activities. The latest incident is harassment of an innocent tanker on passage in The Southern Ocean. Their latest Press Release complete with photos shows all three of their vessels in close proximity of the MT Sun Laurel. This is in complete violation of the International Rules of the Road which designates how vessels should conduct themselves on the High Seas. Not that this Pirate Group is known for following the Rules of the Road if it does not suit them.

By SSCS PG own report the motor tanker (MT) is north of the 60 degree latitude line and they should immediately stand well clear of the vessel by at least two (2) nautical miles and suggest five (5) nautical miles. If they want to follow this tanker on innocent passage then do it from astern and the MS Gojira is in complete violation of the International Rules of the Road. Rule 2 (a) to start with, Rule 7 (a), Rule 8 & Ru…

RFA Mounts Bay L3008 HMS Clyde P257 In "The Telgraph" there is a report today by Robin Yapp which shows the wrong ship. Brazil declined to allow the HMS Clyde which is based in the Falkland Islands to visit the port of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Apparently this was done as a show of support by the new President of Brazil to the President of Argentina. The vessel proceeded to Chile instead where she was welcomed as usual by the Armada de Chile, always gracious hosts.

In the article RFA Mounts Bay was shown instead of HMS Clyde the correct photos are shown above.

USCG Outer Continental Shelf Notice of Arrival Rule was published in the Federal Register today Thursday January 13, 2011. It requires all U.S. and foreign vessels, floating facilities and mobile offshore drilling units arriving or engaging in outer continental activities to report their arrival time and location and information regarding the vessel's voyage, cargo, crew and vessel information. The outer continental shelf includes all submerged lands seaward and outside of the area of lands beneath navigable waters and of which the subsoil and seabed are subject to the jurisdiction and control of the U.S. Outer shelf activity is defined in the U.S. regulations as any activity that occurs on the outer continental shelf and is associated with the exploration for or development or production of minerals, including oil. The Rule implements provisions of the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006. The above chart shows the area referred to in this published final rule. Good…

UPDATE January 13, 2011: From The Southern Ocean at position 60 degrees 47 minutes South latitude, 178 degrees 58 minutes West longitude comes some more news. Continuing to observe the MT Sun Laurel the SSCS vessel Gojira contacted her Master regarding refuelling south of 60 degrees South latitude. Her Master confirmed that he was aware of that maritime law and was heading northwards to the 60 degree latitude line some 47 minutes of latitude away. There they can do an at sea refuelling transfer without interference certainly from the self-appointed guardians of SSCS. NAUTICAL LOG finds it interesting that the SSCS is so concerned since we received a report that the MS Steve Irwin had resupplied the MS Gojira well south of the 60 degree latitude line. In fact they published a photograph which was reproduced by NAUTICAL LOG in a previous post. This particular Press Release with photos seems to have been removed from Sea ShepherdNews - wonder why? Rules apply to all both nautical thugs and …

The other day NAUTICAL LOG received a video from The Institute of Cetacean Research which showed a RHIB from the MS Bob Barker. The RHIB came up the starboard side of the MS Yushin Maru #2 and deployed a rope in an attempt to foul the propeller of the whale catcher. Things did not go too well for the nautical thugs confrontation with the harpoon hooligans!! When the RHIB deployed the rope it did so over its own port quarter then powering ahead of the MS Yushin Maru #2 on its starboard side the RHIB closely crossed the bow of the catcher to its port side. Of course in doing so the RHIB crossed its own line, appeared to foul it and slowed down or stopped. Having reviewed the video at least a dozen times it is however not entirely clear what was fouled. The RHIB then drifted at right angles to the MS Yushin Maru #2 was girthed and nearly flipped over, with the line apparently still attached on the RHIB's port quarter. It should of course been released or cut free immediately there was…